The leader of the UK Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, has sensationally claimed Britain should have voted against the UN resolution which described slavery as the greatest crime against humanity and demanded slavery reparations from former colonial authorities.
Badenoch, was reacting after the UK, along with 51 other mostly European countries, abstained during the voting session.
The United Nations resolution, proposed by Ghana, to recognise transatlantic slavery as the “gravest crime against humanity” and calling for reparations, has been adopted despite pushback from Europe and the United States.
At a UN General Assembly (UNGA) vote on Wednesday, 123 countries supported the resolution, which is not legally binding but carries political weight, while three opposed it, including the US and Israel, and 52 abstained, including the United Kingdom and European Union countries.
But in a post on X, Badenoch criticized the UK government, saying the resolution could lead to “trillions in reparations from UK taxpayers” and questioning why Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s representative did not oppose it. She argued that Britain should not pay reparations, insisting “Britain led the fight to end slavery.” The resolution, which was introduced by Ghana, urges the creation of a global reparations fund and calls on nations to acknowledge and apologize for their role in the transatlantic slave trade.
Kemi wrote:
Russia, China and Iran vote with others to demand trillions in reparations from UK taxpayers…and the Labour government abstain!
Britain led the fight to end slavery.
Why didn’t Starmer’s representative vote against this? Ignorance…or cowardice?
We shouldn’t be paying for a crime we helped eradicate and still fight today.
